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The Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) have been introduced to protect “vulnerable” workers from exploitation by way of low pay or fewer employment rights than permanent workers. It is European legislation drawn up in Brussels where there is a much smaller flexible workforce than in the UK. Basically the legislation states that after 12 weeks on the same site (or at the same place of work) the agency (or temporary worker) is entitled to mostly the same hourly rate of pay and holiday entitlement as the permanent worker doing the same job.

The legislation doesn’t define “vulnerable” and so it applies to absolutely any agency or temp worker whether you are a labourer or a doctor.

As is always the case in the UK, we don’t know what this means legally until the first cases have been heard at tribunal, once judgement is made on a few cases we may have a better understanding of what is deemed a “vulnerable” worker.

Many temporary workers receive a higher hourly rate than their permanent equivalent and so do not necessarily gain anything from the legislation, although they may get a less favourable holiday entitlement. We will have to wait until a judge has decided if higher pay but fewer holiday’s breaches the AWR.

Some low paid, unskilled workers, the people the legislation is intended to protect should be concerned. Within the construction industry for example there is no inclination to increase pay rates of unskilled workers and there is plenty of supply in this area of employment. In this sector the thought is that end user clients will just dispense with the services of agency workers on 12 weeks service and request replacements. As long as the same person doesn’t get sent to the job again they will not be in breach of AWR. The legislation that was intended to protect these workers will actually be a detriment.

The definition of a temporary work agency has a wider scope in the AWR legislation and includes not just employment agencies (or work finders) but intermediaries such as Umbrella Companies and Offshore service providers.

AWR states that the genuinely self-employed are out of scope and the regulations do not apply, however in English law there is a type of person called a “worker” who is neither an employee, not genuinely self-employed. They can provide their services in a self employed capacity for tax reasons, but are considered a worker for employment law purposes.

In the past few months there have been many “solution providers” advertising their services as taking people out of AWR by making them self-employed. This will not work but agencies and end clients do seem to be falling for the ruse. The vast majority of these solutions are based on what is written in a contract but as we know from the case of Autoclenz v Belcher and Others, Employment Tribunals look past the written contracts and at the actual real world relationship to determine whether someone is an employee, a worker or genuinely self employed. If a person turns up on a site as they have been requested to do by name and they are instructed on what to do and how to do it, they are not going to be considered to be self-employed for the purposes of AWR.

Beware of these schemes and viewing them as a magic elixir.

Law firms need a good content management system to ensure that all of the generated content will be stored, archived, and delivered when necessary without wasting time. Bills, affidavits, wills, contracts, memos, and tracking billable hours for each client, are just a few of the numerous documents generated by law firms. Content management at law firms is, therefore, a specific goal that has to be carefully implemented.

Good content management systems are necessary for law firms because their entire operations depend on well-recorded and documented data. Keeping all documents secure and safe is of paramount importance to law firms.

Law firms have to select a content management system that takes into consideration their needs and the system’s affordability and scalability. Technological advancements have led to the creation of software that integrates with the existing software and does not require any user training. They are user-friendly, ensuring that navigation and operation are easy.

Law firms store data digitally by scanning. They need a good system that can retrieve the stored data as fast as possible by enabling keyword searches that accelerate retrieval. The system has to enable them to work without hindrance, allowing changes to be made in real time. The authorized personnel should be able to make changes and save the changes. At the same time, others should have access to a read-only format of the document while the changes are being made. These systems make sure that adequate security is available and that unauthorized people do not misuse data. They provide a usage log that can track the persons who viewed and changed specific documents, preserving the original as well as the changed document.

To save time, these systems should be easy to install taking up just a couple of hours, ensuring the content management is efficient and organized. They should be able to integrate with intranet, Internet, extranet and remote access systems helping effective control over documents and ensuring cost effectiveness.

Content management at law firms requires uninterrupted flow of accurate and current data stored in the repositories. These systems also have to be able to create, control, access, manage, and track documents. They must allow multiple users to access documents from anywhere as long as they are authorized to view the data.

Before purchasing a content management system, law firms need to analyze their need for a content management system, scout for good systems within their budget, check out the features offered, and select the system that is the most suitable as content management at law firms is a very crucial aspect that defines the way the firm operates.

Many firms offer services as well as products to help run a business efficiently.

Law practice management is marketing. Anthony O. author of the classic book Marketing Your Services, defines marketing as follows: “Marketing is a set of lenses you use to look at your business – your entire business. also wrote Marketing is the intentional process of creating and maintaining the relationship of “customer”. Thus managing employees well is marketing. This topic has come up this month since some of my coaching clients have been having significant staffing issues. These staffing issues have negatively impacted their ability to market appropriately as well as upset some of their clients (not a good thing of course). Let me review some law practice management principles around staffing issues.

The main principle is to “hire slow and fire fast”. By this first part of the saying “hire slow” I mean take your time when hiring. Don’t hire the first person you think is good. Particularly if they came from an advertisement since most people answering ads are not the cream of the crop. In law practice management you will need to learn some recruitment skills. You can get a good start on learning some via my seven part auto responder course on time management/productivity that you will find on my website under the resources tab.

In law practice management these days you need to seriously consider using  -employment testing since this has been honed to a fine art. You can get what I call “Mr. Science’s” opinion on your best candidate(s). Additionally, interviewing is less an art than a science these days as well. You need to learn some of those law practice management skill sets.

Another related principle is to pay the right person for the job up to 20% over the market rate (especially if you are a solo or small firm) so they are very happy campers with no temptation to be looking elsewhere thus they will be with you for the long haul. Why pay so much? This is not a time to be penny wise and pound foolish. The cost of changeover is incredible. The cost of a wrong hire is even more expensive. The cost to your marketing efforts is also an issue. You want this good employee to be very happy and motivated to do well. Money in law practice management is a good way to do that of course.

If an employee has a grievance against another employee, their Manager or the organisation, it is important that it is handled correctly. Grievances that are not dealt with promptly can result in disciplinary action, poor working relationships, expensive tribunal cases and good employee leaving the organisation. Because of this, it is extremely important that an organisation not only follows the legal requirements surrounding managing grievances, but also puts in place a process that ensures any grievances raised will be handled in a fair and timely fashion.

So the first thing you need to be aware of is the employment law regulations? First things first, it is important that you specify the grievance process to employees in their Terms and Conditions of employment and/or their employee handbook. It is important that employees are also aware that they are able to be accompanied to a grievance by either a fellow employee of their choice, or a trade union representative. If an employee decides to apply to an Employment Tribunal with regards to their grievance, they can only do so after following the following 3 stages with their employer:

1) An employee should raise their grievance in writing.
2) An employee should be invited to attend a grievance meeting to discuss the written grievance with their employer.
3) If the grievance outcome is not satisfactory to the employee, they should appeal against it.

Following an appeal, if an employee is still unsatisfied with the outcome of their grievance, they can take their complaint to an Employment Law Tribunal. Because of this, it is extremely important that organisations have a full grievance procedure and do everything possible to resolve any concerns at a local level.
Employees can raise a grievance in relation to several things.

No matter whether your organisation is the best in the world, employees may still find something to complain about. Employees tend to raise grievances in the following areas:

* Terms and Conditions of employment
* Health and safety
* Bullying and Harassment
* Supervision / Management
* Sexual Harassment
* Discrimination.

A detailed grievance policy will not prevent grievances being raised, however it will ensure that as an organisation you are doing everything possible to resolve the grievance locally. Employers should also ensure they have detailed policies surrounding the above areas of employment as a preventative method.
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